space: [shortly afterwards, as we shall see, Mademoiselle de Volanges found a new confidante and we shall thus no longer be reporting the letters she continued to write to her convent friend since they would not be providing us with any new information.]
all right: this whole section is an object lesson in the rational application of principles of seduction based on experience. Valmont smugly believes that he has turned the whole matter into an exact science. Having analysed and labelled Tourvel to his own satisfaction, he intends to proceed with cold-blooded precision.
replied to Danceny: [this letter is missing.]
Madame de Rosemonde… to hear it: another blatant untruth; Tourvel is employing desperate defensive tactics.
apple of discord: according to Greek myth, the golden apple inscribed ‘for the fairest’ was given by Paris to Aphrodite and not to the two other claimants, Hera and Athene; Paris got Helen in reward and the Trojan war resulted.
goes for seven: in the card-game faro, going for seven means raising your stake sevenfold.
country estates: in this story, the men are smug and get off scot-free; the women are strictly punished: the double standard is at work here, as elsewhere in Liaisons.
Goodbye, Cécile: despite the at times rather inflated tone, this letter shows an understanding of a lover’s feelings very far removed from libertinism.
Believe me… do without: one of the most acute of Merteuil’s many witty aphorisms.
those throneless tyrants… our slaves: [it is not known whether this line of verse, like the one above, her arms still open though her heart is closed, are quotations from little-known works or form part of Madame de Merteuil’s prose style, as we would be led to believe by the host of such solecisms throughout this correspondence, except in Danceny’s letters; as he sometimes wrote poetry himself, his better-trained ear made it easier for him to avoid this error.] It was considered bad form to incorporate verse rhythms into prose letters. This note shows the great care Laclos devoted to stylistic niceties. The whole of letter 81 reveals a powerful rhetorical drive indicative of Merteuil’s strong feelings on the subject of female emancipation—particularly, even exclusively, her own.
the pretext for them: an exact summing-up of the hedonism of the Enlightenment—that people are activated by purely selfish motives, of which the most basic is the desire for pleasure.
the ones you think: she is probably suggesting that Valmont may have Crébillon or more licentious authors in mind.
humiliating: Merteuil wields blackmail as freely as Valmont.
reckless one of us two: [later, in letter 152, we shall learn, not Monsieur de Valmont’s secret but more or less what sort it was; and readers will understand why we could not further enlighten them on this subject.] Laclos, a master of suspense, skilfully introduces a tantalizing note of mystery: was the royal court—perhaps the Queen—involved? See letter 152, first paragraph.
or die in the attempt: she seems to be adopting a heroic stance which is traditionally virile; such hidden masculinity helps us to understand Merteuil’s attraction towards the tender Cécile; it must also make her feel irked by any sensual dependence on men. However, her intellectual superiority always allows her effortless power over them; was Gercourt her only failure in this regard and thus so loathed?
Goodbye: this letter is central to our understanding of Merteuil’s conduct and morality. Women who think men beastly have usually suffered some traumatic personal hurt; the ‘enlightened’ Merteuil uses reason and observation to reach the conclusion that maledominated society is so unfair that the so-called fixed moral principles are an arbitrary convention. She therefore places herself beyond good and evil: it’s legitimate to do anything you like in pursuit of your pleasure. Readers who find Merteuil’s hatred of society inadequately motivated can be reminded that Stendhal—notoriously unreliable—claims that he knew Laclos’s model for Merteuil: she had a limp, which would justify a certain discontent with life; but there is no mention of a limping Merteuil in Liaisons.
announcement: [see letter 74.]
lansquenet: a card-game introduced into France by German soldiers (Landsknechte).
Bishop of ——: a close acquaintance between a bishop and a notorious libertine is an intriguing note. A dangerous acquaintance—perhaps for both? Or birds of a feather? In any case, the hypocritical Valmont is well aware that, whatever his own belief or lack of belief may be, friendship with a high ecclesiastical authority can always come in handy; and a well-bred man observing the social code and avoiding openly outrageous scandal is accepted in all drawing-rooms.
Their names: [see letter 70.]
prospect of failure: once again we see the importance of the word love as an almost obligatory and, for the initiated, infallible talisman to lead to sexual intimacy.
Zaïre, you are weeping: Voltaire’s tragedy Zaïre, first performed in 1732, concerns the love of Sultan Orosmane for Zaïre, a Christian raised in his seraglio. Thinking she loves someone else, he is ready to release her, but as he speaks, her tears reveal that she loves him. With typical impishness Merteuil uses a quotation from a tragedy to illustrate her comic situation.
Cerberus: in classical mythology this true hellhound guarded the entrance to the infernal regions; again Merteuil is being mockheroic.
‘And that was all there was to it’: a quotation from Annette et Lubin, a verse comedy by Charles-Simon Favart (1710–92), director of the Opéra-Comique. It was first performed in 1762. Annette is saying that love is just innocent pleasure; how can anyone think it wrong?
gallimaufry: [not everyone knows that a gallimaufry is a combination of various card-games from which each player may choose when it is his or her turn. It is one of this century’s novelties.] A nice realistic and topical touch.
more than one meaning: we are reminded that Danceny, like Laclos in his youth, is a poet. This is one of Laclos’s most brilliant letters: the impulsiveness and blindness of love; the attempt to explain away misgivings which, ironically have no basis—as yet; pathetic appeals to a false friend; fear at having lost his girl’s love: all the cruel (for him; rather funny for the reader) uncertainties of a young, sensitive, and gullible man.
safe, simple, and convenient: [Danceny does not know what this method is; he is merely repeating Valmont’s words.] A bitter irony here.
anything else: an excellent example of Laclos’s clinical, deliberate, and perhaps mischievous impartiality in blurring moral issues: with Cécile’s admission of semi-acquiescence, Valmont’s violence (rape or near rape) appears less violent. Laclos’s method of working largely by implication often leaves a whiff of moral anarchy.
precious qualities: precious indeed; but, ironically, sensitivity towards her daughter is not Volanges’s forte. She has been too taken up with her social round, too dazzled by the prospect of a rich and aristocratic son-in-law.
mother of his children: perhaps the most savage dramatic irony of this relentlessly ironic novel.
Achilles’ spear: on his way to Troy, Achilles had inflicted a spear wound on Telephus, king of the Mysians. The king consulted the Delphic oracle, who told him that ‘the wounder would also be the healer’. Telephus sought out Achilles and his wound was cured by the rust from Achilles’ spear.
‘Je suis… pas galant’: [Voltaire’s comedy Nanine.] Nanine (1749), a sentimental verse comedy, deals with the common theme of persecuted innocence; an early example, though in verse, of the middle-class drame bourgeois (see note to p. 43). The translation is: ‘I’m not being gallantly polite. I’m just being fair.’
ruined: Valmont uses the same word which he had already used to describe his own treatment of women: it’s a case of the biter bit. His vanity (it is surely not his love) is particularly hurt because it is a basic principle of a libertine to be always the first to break off a relationship; here, not only has Tourvel left him first but, after his incautious anticipation of
imminent surrender, he hasn’t even succeeded in having her. Even more amusingly, now that his careful calculations have let him down, he’s at a loss to know what to do; no sign of triumph here.
if there are any: this paragraph highlights Valmont’s obsession with careful organization (we recall that his creator was an engineer) and his clear belief that rational analysis of Tourvel’s external behaviour will infallibly lead to an understanding of her feelings. However Valmont, even if a rationalist, is clearly no philosophe; he shows no sign of deprecating his aristocratic privileges or of wishing to redress social injustice; and whether he is any sort of believer or not, he uses religion purely for his own egoistic and dastardly ends. It is ironical to see a rationalist becoming more and more obsessed, to the point of derangement, by his obsessive desire for Tourvel.
twenty-five louis: seduction of a virtuous woman is not a pursuit for the poor man; women such as Émilie certainly come cheaper.
M ——: [a village half-way between Paris and Madame de Rosemonde’s château.]
nothing new: but this wise and pious old lady did not warn this innocent young wife of Valmont’s reputation (see note to p. 68); and like other victims of their sins of omission or commission, whether through weakness, self-delusion or even kindness, she will be tragically punished.
Madame de Sévigné: 1626–96, lived a good deal in the country, where life would certainly have been more spartan than in Paris. Merteuil is playing up to a perceived nostalgic affection of the conventional Volanges for ‘the good old days’ and perhaps for the imagined virtues of country life, à la Nouvelle Heloïse.
not found wanting: Merteuil knows very well Gercourt’s special personal qualities, particularly in bed.
friendship for you: Merteuil’s letter is a masterpiece of casuistry and hypocrisy. Laclos is pushing his irony to the point of impudence: Volanges, originally responsible for arranging this match, now has misgivings, and the defence of the system is placed in the mouth of a ruthless and mendacious woman using plausible arguments which Merteuil knows will flatter the suggestible and easily scared mother and appeal to her conservative instincts and religious beliefs, which Merteuil herself relentlessly subverts. The irony is compounded when we reflect that Merteuil may well be right: Cécile’s love for Danceny may well be an infatuation; and Gercourt is a man of the world, with a good position in society and the wealth to maintain it. As Merteuil says, marriages made in heaven do not necessarily remain there.
none of its pleasures: Merteuil is again preaching the hedonism of the Enlightenment: the purpose of life is to seek pleasure and avoid pain; chastity is nonsense; we can understand the frowns of puritans.
for having done so: Merteuil’s self-interested but comforting argument that ‘everybody’s doing it’ (commonly used by predatory males) paradoxically does help to mitigate the harrowing effect of the violence enacted against Cécile by Valmont. Once again we see dishonesty seemingly the best policy.
pleasure machines: the use of this word suggests a view of men and women as pieces of machinery which, with appropriate Stimuli, can be engineered to undertake any required action. Julien-Offray de La Mettrie, the most thorough-going behaviourist philosophe of all, wrote in 1747 a work entitled L’Homme-Machine which so shocked even the tolerant Dutch that he had to seek refuge with the ‘enlightened’ king of Prussia, Frederick II.
at ——: [still in the same village half-way to Madame de Rosemonde’s château.]
Clarisse: a French translation of Richardson’s Clarissa by the Abbé Prévost appeared in 1751. The predicament of Clarissa, who had imprudently entered into correspondence with a rake and then run away to avoid his pursuit, was very relevant to Tourvel.
servants’ lodge: an outbuilding in the grounds of the château to house the servants (and the horses) of visiting guests.
judge’s liveryman: Azolan is a snob; he is the personal servant (and thus not wearing a footman’s or groom’s livery) of an authentic landed aristocrat by birth and looks down on the noblesse de robe granted to high legal and administrative officers by reason of their office. Azolan is a perfect Figaro, neither humble nor obedient but certainly matching his master in roguery.
‘Heavenly powers… its delights’: [Nouvelle Heloïse.] The situation of Tourvel, deeply in love but in duty bound to resist, bears a certain resemblance to Julie’s, and Danceny’s to Saint-Preux’s. It is ironic to see the dissolute Valmont quoting from this overtly moralizing work from which he’s probably borrowing his standard rigmarole (see this letter).
in novels: Crébillon’s spring to mind; again, a mischievous reminder that, for Laclos, reading is a second education.
Clarissa: Lovelace drugs Clarissa to possess her; while Valmont rejects such methods, his own are hardly consistent with the willing surrender he had been so boastfully insisting on earlier.
‘the pleasures of vice… virtue’: [Nouvelle Heloïse.]
write elegiacs: perhaps a deprecating, ironical backward look at Laclos’s own early versifying.
‘Love will provide’: [Regnard, Les Folies amoureuses.] Regnard (1655–1709) was a very popular dramatist of his period. Les Folies amoureuses tells the rather trite story of a young girl foiling an old suitor and marrying her young sweetheart.
off-beat’: Valmont is blasé and may be heading towards desperate boredom, perhaps even taedium vitae. Merteuil sometimes shows similar symptoms.
health: Valmont’s not the sexual athlete he’s been claiming to be.
Bastia: an important port on the north-east coast of Corsica.
The Comte de Gercourt: we can assess from this letter that Gercourt is something of a name-dropper, a trifle smug but mannerly.
11th: [this letter is missing.]
to confirm … her virtue: [On ne s’avise jamais de tout; a comedy.] In fact, a comic opera (You can never think of everything), by Michel-Jean Sedaine (1719–97), one of the principal practitioners of middle-class drama (see note to p. 43).
wrote me: [see letter 109.]
worthy of him: an outrageously mischievous letter, not only calculated to arouse Valmont’s jealousy but impudently soliciting his help. Does she really fancy Danceny?
from professionals: Valmont is moulded in the line of Crébillon’s heroes, circumspectly veiling scabrous situations in decorous language, easily decoded by the practised debauchee Merteuil and by any (enjoyably shocked and voyeuristic?) sophisticated readers of both sexes. It is now difficult to know, if tantalizing to speculate, what sexual practices might have been considered unreasonably demanding by eighteenth-century French tarts. Whatever they were, they must have been fairly outrageous and any familiarity with them by his ‘virgin’ bride would have been a rather nasty eye-opener for Gercourt on his wedding night. But perhaps Laclos was merely suggesting that, puffed up with vanity as always, Valmont was just bragging; a fact that would have not gone unnoticed by the alert Merteuil.
intercepting them: yet another trick Laclos could have picked up from Richardson’s Lovelace.
torture him: funnelling a continuous flow of water into a victimtied-down face upward was one method of obtaining confessions.
dry season: smart people are all still away in the country and the season of plays, operas, and balls hasn’t yet begun.
happy again: a brilliant pastiche of sentimental clichés, self-deception, and lover’s pique, yet a genuine feeling of love withal; a comparison might be a similar blend achieved by Mozart in parts of Così fan tutte.
misleading you: Valmont is clearly using his fond aunt as a pawn, who is misled by her very piety: another irony.
touching example of her own: the profane duplicity of this letter shows Valmont’s piety as a hypocritical shell; he is a libertin in both the eighteenth-century and seventeenth-century meanings of the word: a rake as well as a free-thinker.
His august and holy care: Merteuil is as blasphemous as Valm
ont.
be your last: to an aunt who is a sincere believer but, possibly through fondness for her nephew, an unwitting procuress, Laclos adds Father Anselme, an unwitting pimp, who displays an amusingly unctuous self-confidence: Laclos’s irony at the expense of piety and established religion is pitiless.
analyse it more closely: Valmont’s instinct or experience provides him with the right solution: analysing feelings is often a way to destroy them—a permanent danger (or handy safeguard) for the professional rake.
enjoy hearing: Laclos is anxious to guarantee the plausibility of a story which Valmont is going to report in such, rather improbably, accurate detail.
two letters: [letters 120 and 123.]
prudishness: another reading has prudence; the reader can choose.
etc. etc.: the wily Valmont is using Tourvel’s alleged infraction of the proper code of polite social intercourse to weaken her position whilst he, outwardly conforming to this code in public, ruthlessly ignores it in private; salon sociability hinged on the external forms of respectable conduct and the avoidance of scandal.
Les Liaisons Dangereuses Page 50